Medicines verification system

The medicines verification systems not only promotes safety but is an additional means of ensuring the authenticity of medicines.

Although counterfeit medicines are a general and growing problem, Finnish patients have been able to trust the safety of the medicines bought in pharmacies. In view of potential counterfeits, Europe has wanted to make a special effort to ensure the authenticity of medicines and to build a so-called medicines verification system.

Introduced in early 2019, the system improves the safety and certainty regarding medicine authenticity. The objective is to prevent the entry of counterfeit medicines into the legal distribution channels. When the patient buys the medicine from a pharmacy or on-line pharmacy, they can rely on the authenticity of the product.

As a result of this new system, the pharmacies are obliged to check the medicine’s safety features before dispensing the medicine to the customer. The check is very rapid to make and it does not require any action from the part of the customer. The introduction of the Europe-wide system was prepared for several years. The entire Finnish medicines distribution chain was actively involved in the preparation.

It is almost impossible to recognise a counterfeit medicine. They constitute a health risk that can, at worst, be fatal. Most of the counterfeit medicines are bought from illegal online stores or illegal pharmacies abroad.